Museum Removes Every Piece of Art Created By Immigrants

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(CNN) — Starting today and lasting through President’s Day weekend, all work created or donated by immigrants will no longer be displayed The Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Instead, curators will drape black cloth over cases, and line the walls with labels that say “Created by an immigrant.”

They are calling the initiative: “Art-Less.” And it’s meant to highlight immigrants’ impact, even in the world of art.

“We have removed or cloaked these works to demonstrate symbolically what the Davis Museum would look like without their contributions to our collections and to Wellesley College, and to thereby honor their many invaluable gifts,” the museum said.

One of the main works missing is the portrait of George Washington.

Not only was the painting created by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, an immigrant who came to the US in the 1790s, but the work was also donated to the Davis Museum by an immigrant family.

The museum says approximately 20 percent of the work in its permanent galleries were either created or donated by immigrants.